The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1887-11-02

ion was practicable. At the same time, i
was manifest that il was not the intent OF I
he Legislature to stop the payment of in c
crest; and on the other hand. that il did not I
contemplate the abandonment of the idea |
IF the fosterer, the idea of sthe bounty, as I
he Senator puts it. The statute Is express $
y ssin lieu of ALL allowances heretofore I
made; of the one class as well as of the
other; of neither class alone.
In this dilemma, conservative account
ant might very well have concluded, and !
any other conclusion must have been based ]
on an arbitrary assumption of rule, to look
on the appropriation as a satisfaction of IN
terest first; and to regard the balance over
after such satisfaction, if any, as a dona-
ton This view if adopted, land il is a very
simple solution of an otherwise unsolvable
difficulty would produce at once the double
result of preventing any further accumula-
ton of interest unless the interest was
larger than the whole appropriation, and
as preventing any reduction of the amount
already due. In other words, the amount
due in 1880, would be precisely that due IN
1871; and since, in order to preserve the
simplicity of the account, in the item OF
$547, 1858. II the nine years of interests in
cluded. whereas no interest really accumu-
lates because paid by the appropriations of |
that interest, to rectify the over-charge.
Section POLO of the Code approved May
Is, 1871; the ects of 1875, 1876, 1877 and |
1873, all continue the same policy, and |
some of them are even more explicit in their |
terms; the appropriations were put into
the general appropriation bills at this time.
l should not have so dwelt on this head
but for the fact that Senator George has
flung down his gauntlet, and proclaimed it
to be the only sufficient answer to his arti-
Gle; and in order that his proclamation
may not be overlooked has put it into ital-
les do not wish him to be ''dis-accom-
modated." OF course he will not accede to
the principles of this account, for he has
| already denied them. But shall have full
| filled my task when | show that there is an
Ineligible and reasonable principle by the
application of which to the case in hand
| the designated result may be reached. That
result is attained, not by appealing to the
| act of 1S43, with its wonderful biological
| record of ''ante-foetal and post norton
vigor and mahgnity,' its alleged continu
| ance in force for THIRTY-Two YEARS AFTER
| ITS REPEAL" as the Senator puts ii, largely
/ in small capitals, in fact; but simply by
the determination of what appropriations
| were, and what were not, in view of all the
1 circumstances fairly to be considered as
| credits against the fund. That point was
| one on which the Legislature were perhaps
as competent to form an opinion as any
one, even the Senator; and it was their un-
doubted prerogative so to do.
The Senator's article shows on its face
| that the passage of this bill of 1880 was not
a deed done in the night. 1t passed by a
| close vote; ~ voting for, and 40 against it
in the House; and Is for and II against it
in the Senate.
do not think the account did the fund
justice, as will appear elsewhere; but that
is not the point just here.
THE UNIVERSITY RE-oPENs THE MATTER.
i The Senator tries to avoid the force of
the statute of 1880, by arguing that the
University has re-opened the matter; and
he seeks to Justify this position by repeat
ed references to "a pamphlet issued by
the University in which it is claimed that
the debt is about two millions, etc. great
deal of space is devoted to this pamphlet
and its claims, as if it were one that was
, put out in some extraordinary way. In fact
it is nothing more or less than the College
catalogue, which i. issued annually. This
edition is enlarged by the addition of an
historical feature, setting forth las has been
done several times before) an account of
all the old officers, professors and students,
and to that was added short historical
sketch of the financial history of the Insti-
tuition. 1t is nothing else than an histori-
cal sketch, and does not profess to be any
thing else. 1t Is composed almost wholly
of abstracts of the material portions of the
various statutes and of the Go yernor's Mes.
sage; with long quotations from the mes
sage of Gov. McRae and the Memorial of
Mr.. Thompson; and then prints the act of
1880. These matters are strung together
7 by connecting sentence or two here and
} there, until the close of the article; and il
is there that the Senator finds his casls beIli.
> Right here, l wish to say this by way of
: a personal explanation. The article in
question was mine; every word and letter
of it. If there be anything in it which sub
jects one to the "reproach of presenting an
,un just and illegal claim against the State
the reproach is mine. If there be in IT
3 anything inconsistent with the settlement
of 1880, the inconsistency is mine, and
MINE ALONE. So far as / know, or ever
} heard, the Board of Trustees, nor any indi-
vidual of the Board, ever had the slightest
intention of re-opening the settlement of
} 1880. l wrote and published the article on
my own possibility, because thought l
2 saw in various articles appearing in the
newspapers Communications, indications
3 that an influence outside of the University
= and hostile to it was threatening to reopen
he matter, and l desired to put our three
3 thousand students, present and old, in pos
esslon of the facts There is neither the
one or the other, as | shall show presently.
The Senator seems to have mistaken the
situation there, as he did in many other
places. The duty of the preparation of the
9 catalogue is committed to the presiding
officer of the faculty. He alone is respon-
slble for it. Neither the Trustees nor the
Faculty take part in it, or know aught of
its contents until it appears. 1t is, there
fore, his personal account of the current
years work; and his personal interpreta-
( ton and statement of such rules of the In
stitution, as are of interest to those who pur-
pose becoming students. In the very de-
| alterations of the Faculty of which ne is
the head, the Catalogue is not received as
authority on any point under discussion.
, Still less is it of authority on any point of
, the financial policy of the Institution.
= Neither the Chairman, nor the Faculty, have
anything whatever to do with that. These
facts are so well understood at the Univer-
! sity, and we presumed by all who felt inter
ested in it, that it never even occurred to
the writer that the pamphlet or any part
of it would be considered an announcement
, of the trustees If the article in question had
undertaken to outline financial policy for
3 the future, of an aggressive character
against the State, as the Senator so vehem-
J emily insists,-then the proper thing for
him to do would be to castigate me for ex-
ceeding my authority and putting inn
when | had no business. In which case,
although fear that am not quite of the
Senator's heroic mould, and cannot say
that 81 had as lief not be, as live to be in
awe of i'll to come" etc; yet still / might
find in the secret reserves of my nature for
titude Tor perhaps the Senator would rather
say, hardihood) to survive the storm of his
reproach.
But the article means nothing of the sort
The passages alluded to by the Senator
are these:
| "We have seen how intimately connected
was this claim of our University with the
Planters Bank enterprise; and in the heat
of great political controversy, the less
question was naturally swallowed up in the
greater, and met the same fate. In such
times, men do not indulge in distinctions,
but sober, second thought, after passions
have cooled, must be relied on to set all such
matters right. And in this case, it did set
the principle of this matter right.
an the year 1880, the Legislature passed
the act following: there follows the act of
1880. The article then proceeds to the
conclusion:
ssThe statute above quoted settles, as we
said, the principle of the matter, being an
express recognition by the State of the fact
that the University is not its pensioner, but
its creditor. 1t has been our task to set
forth as briefly and simply as possible the
historical facts and legal principles on
| which that recognition was predicated